Mess of Things
by Roi de Reves et Diamants
Summary: Jareth made a mess of things and is now feeling regret. Can he persuade Sarah to think better of him?
1. Chapter 1 What a Mess

**AN: So, most of the characters that will be here don't belong to me. The Vampyre is mine, and yes I will use that spelling, deal with it. My first go, not sure where it will go, I'm just trying to put down what I see in my head. Who knows how often those accursèd plot bunnies will show up. So... Read! then Review!**

What once could have been a great and beautiful ballroom now lay in ruin. Curtains hung tattered and torn; chandeliers lay shattered, dilapidated from what had caused this havoc and the passage of time; fragments of glass and crystal had found their new home resting scattered about the floor. A silent figure walked into the room careful not to disturb anything further than what had become of it. The gaunt and pale man moved himself slowly to the center of the room where another figure sat staring in silence at an opulent clock that had stopped an hour from madnight.

With a tone that bordered on monotonous the pale man broke the silence, "Lord Jareth, wh–"

"Stop." Jareth interrupted, "I need no lecturing from you, vampyre. Leave me be." Jareth continued to sit, his entire focus devoted to the stopped clock. His mismatched eyes watched unblinkingly, never shifting, with an amount of sadness and regret and a twinge of anger behind them.

"Come now, it is time to move on, Goblin King, you should get back to living." The vampyre moved to look into Jareth's face. His angular features were unmoved. "Hmm… still have _her_ on your mind?"

One would have thought the word had hit Jareth across the face with the look that it generated. The reminder of what was in his mind finally broke his glaring at the clock and caused him to wince. With his eyes now closed he offered a simple nod in response to the question.

"Jareth, Jareth, Jareth… You should move on. I have read how they write about you, I'm surprised you have not taken any of them up on _their_ dreams." The toothy grin was met with a vengeful glare. "Sorry, your high-and-mighty-ness, I know of no one who looks upon chocolate sauce with more anger. Hmm, perhaps one from among your fellow fae then; I know, there was a hunter who had a daughter, if memory serves me properly…" The vampyre's voice trailed to nothing as he could tell that Jareth was not taking this goading well.

"He is was falconer, and no. No, NO!" With a growing rage he jumped from his chair sending it flying and adding to the chaos that consumed the rest of the room. "No…" he finally added, as he leaned his head against the stilled clock, "None of them will do. Sarah is so much better than they are, I can't get past the fact that she left."

"Oh get off your self pitying ass, you have only one person to blame for that and you know it. You had her falling in love with you, the prospects you offered, your song took her in and she was loving it." He paused to let his words sink in before pointing an accusatory finger at the broken clock. "But no, that was not enough for you; you had to go and gloat over how you were so close to besting her with your labyrinth, how you were going to be able to keep her brother for all time." The vampyre just shook his head, "The intricacies of your love life astound me, Jareth."

"It's been nearly three years now… Even if I told her how I really feel, do you think that she would even think twice about me now?"

"One way to find out, Goblin King. You need to get out of here anyways, let me clean it up a bit; ever think about using diamond instead of crystal?" at the question the vampyre grinned wider than one would think possible, "After all, it is quite a bit harder to break." He had to quickly duck out of the way to avoid being flown into by a large barn owl. "Hmm, now how long have you been listening..?"

"Long enough to know you're plotting something." A young woman poked her head out from behind the now abandoned clock, her golden eyes staring at the vampyre accusingly.

"How well you know me, shall we go and watch what fun may come of this?"

The two left arm in arm from the opulent clock and accompanying chaos.


	2. Chapter 2 Do we all make messes?

Sarah was flustered. Not an entirely abnormal state for her, but for some reason she felt more irked than usual.

"How could he be so cruel! UHG! It's not f–" she cut herself short and snapped a rubber band she kept round her wrist for just such an occasion. "Damn," she continued after a long pause, "I always remember _that_ line."

Her head whipped around to glare at the dressing table from her childhood room. She could have sworn she heard someone laughing at her. It was the only piece of furniture she had brought with her when she moved out to live with Cathy, Anne, and Ashlyn. She had too many memories hiding in that mirror to ever part with it.

"Just calm down, Sarah," she started to say to herself. "You're just tired and flustered and talking to yourself. You can get through this, it'll be a piece of cake! You'll just kick him to the curb and move on. Just like you always do."

She began to notice how messy things had gotten in her room of the apartment. It was in utter chaos. _How did I let myself go like this?_ Sarah thought to herself. She had always been meticulous when she was living with her dad and step-mom; everything had to be in its proper place that way she knew, always knew, when someone had been into her room again. She knew when that woman had barged into her sanctum and taken her Lancelot and started the mess of three years ago.

She began to move gracefully about her room; getting each item back into its proper niche, organizing discarded clothing, emptying the trash. It all started to fall into place bringing with it a soothing feeling that Sarah had been needing the past few days. All the troubles with Josh were starting to bring her down.

"There, all better." Her tone was calm and collected, a stark contrast to the shouting that brought memories of childish self-centeredness that was blaring from her not twenty minutes before. "Done. See, it was a piece of cake…"

Her attention shifted in an instant to the window of the room. She could have sworn she had heard something and she thought she glimpsed a bird fly away. She moved closer to investigate to find a slip of paper wedged under her window that was not there before. After carefully getting the paper inside and unfolding it what she read nearly stopped her heart.

_Precious Sarah, _

_ You should not use such tempting phrases so blatantly, I just might have to do something, shall we say, rash about them. In any case, my offers of Mornings of Gold still stand and should you _wish_ to collect upon them, you know what to do._

_ Your King,_

_ J._


End file.
